


take me home, country roads

by BugDetective



Series: Fallout Ficlets [1]
Category: Fallout 76
Genre: F/M, Jason doesn't know what feral ghouls are yet, Jason is precious bean, Original Characters - Freeform, Pre-Relationship, no canon story to be seen here folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24237730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BugDetective/pseuds/BugDetective
Summary: Jason Dearly leaves his vault and discovers the beauty and terrors of Appalachia. This is a story about my friend kittenbuns' OC.
Relationships: Jason Dearly/Ritz
Series: Fallout Ficlets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749427
Kudos: 3





	take me home, country roads

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kittenbuns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittenbuns/gifts).



> Hi! I freaking love Jason and I don't care if this story makes sense to anyone except for the person I'm writing it for. Sorry, other people. Jason belongs to kittenbuns, and Fallout belongs to Bethesda. Ritz the radio host belongs to me. I am just an idiot with a laptop

As the vault door slid closed behind him, it finally sunk in just what he had done, and Jason felt bile rise hot and acrid in his throat. His father, his brothers, Mia, and Danielle were all in there, and he would likely never get to see them ever again. He had ran from the vault thoughtlessly, as his emotions crushed in on him. He hadn't been able to take it any longer,knowing that Danielle didn't love him and that his family seemed to never quite fit right ever since his mother had left - like a puzzle put together wrong, but what did leaving the vault leave for him? Blue eyes wide with fear of the unknown, and from what he had just done, he finally turned to look around him.

Vault 215 had felt cramped and stifling, but the world he was looking at now looked vast and endless. The sun was bright and the land, though he knew it was irradiated, was filled with greenery that he hadn't expected to find. The world may have ended, but Appalachia was undeniably beautiful. The only real thing he could do now was to see if he could figure out just where his mother may have gone. His hope that he would actually find her was non-existent. She had left years ago, and the likelihood of her even having survived out here was minuscule. Still, he had nothing else. No other purpose out here. And he very much needed something to keep him going now.

So, although everything inside of him told him to beg to be let back into the vault, he began to walk. He had known that there might not be people out here, but after walking for a few hours and not even seeing one living person, he began to realize just how alone he was. If the amount of people being around all the time in the vault had felt like a weight at times, then this isolation out here felt absolutely crushing. So, hoping to find something, anything, to at least listen to and make him feel less like the last man in the world, he looked to his pip-boy and flipped to the radio tab to see if there was anything. And there was. Point Pleasant Radio. He tuned his pip-boy to the broadcast.

_"Now, my sweet listeners, you know I'm always telling you all to be careful and to take care of yourselves, but I really must remind you all yet again to to make sure you have a RadAway and a Stimpak on you at all times. Oh! Also some antibiotics. I'm not your mother, but as your dearest host, I love you all, and must continue to drill this into your heads. It's much too easy to fall to injury or radiation sickness out here."_  
  


It was a woman's voice that came from the speaker of his pip-boy, and as she spoke, it was almost like sinking into a warm bath. Jason knew he wasn't alone in this world. Not really, anyways. This woman was out there, and if she really cared for people like she said, then that meant there were good people even. Her voice was like honey, sweet and flowing, not high pitched at all though. It was a womanly alto.  
  
_"I know, I know. Most of you listening probably came from Vault 111 too, and are saying 'Ritz, we didn't need you mothering us in the vault, and we definitely don't need it now!'"_ The radio host, Ritz, apparently, giggled girlishly. _"That's just too bad though! It never stopped me then, and it won't stop me now!"  
  
  
_ Jason found himself chuckling quietly along with her. He didn't know this woman, but she spoke so familiarly with her radio audience that it felt like he did. And so, from then on, he kept his radio on as much as he could in the following weeks. The mysterious Ritz's voice and the songs she chose to play were his only constant companion as he searched for signs of his mother. Even still, eventually he started to fall into despair when he found nothing to even hint at where his mother might have gone.  
  
So, eventually, Jason found himself outside of the vault, holding down the intercom button. "Please! Just answer me!" He begged. "It's me, Jason! I promise I won't try to leave again. Just let me come back in! Please..." He had been begging for the better part of two hours, and still, all he heard was silence from the vault, even though he knew that they must be able to hear him. So, he slid down against the vault door as his fingers curled into his blonde locks, pulling on it just enough to be painful as a quiet sob escaped him.  
  
That was when he heard the shuffling though, paired with rasping breath. Shakily, he looked up. He had been here for too long. There were three of those shambling things looking around for him. They reminded him of zombies. Maybe that's what they were? He didn't know what else they could be. So, he was quick to get to his feet. He needed to get away. He had nothing to fight them off with. Him moving caught their attention though, and they hissed and shrieked as they began to ran towards him.  
  
It felt like his heart might burst from his chest from terror, but Jason didn't let himself think about that now. He ran, as fast as his legs would take him. The things were relentless though, chasing him without showing signs of tiring. And so, he ran for what he knew must have been a long time. Eventually, it started to become too much. He had run too hard for too long, and it was dark outside. Even with the edges of his vision blurring, he could see light from up a hill. So, desperately he ran up it, the zombies closing in him. And then there were bullets. Much too fast to be from a normal gun. A turret, maybe? He didn't have time to ponder it before he felt a sharp pain bloom in his shoulder and he fell to the ground.  
  
As he was floating between being awake and passing out, he felt something get injected into his shoulder and small, soft hands pulling at him.  
  
"Come on, sugar. Stay with me. Let's get you into the house." The voice was familiar, like honey.


End file.
